There's mushroom for improvement in fungal computing

US boffins claim early tests indicate edible mushrooms can function as organic memory devices, though significant challenges remain before the lab experiment can be turned into something practical. Researchers at Ohio State University say they cultivated and "trained" shiitake and button mushrooms to act as memristors – …

[lglethal]

I, for one, welcome our delicious tasting, future computing overlords...

[spacecadet66]

Looking forward to the first major outage caused by someone wanting to make risotto.

[Roj Blake]

Ignobel

If these boffins don't deserve an Ignobel, then nobody does.

[45RPM]

But do button mushrooms work any better or feel clickier than cherries?

[SVD_NL]

I've heard they're a bit mushy, so there's room for improvement.

[Korev]

I hear they're having a Puffball

[Korev]

You sound like a Fungi at parties!

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

That' spore attempt at humour.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Never mind button mushrooms. What about touchscreen mushrooms?

[AbominableCodeman]

Thy are okay, if you don't mind your screen covered with shitake fingermarks.

[Anonymous Coward]

My housmate at uni in the 80s ate some mushrooms that he definitely didn't buy from the greengrocer and after spending about 12 hours curled in a ball on the living-room floor twitching, wimpering and dribbling the only thing he could remember with any certainty was "orange".

[Anonymous Coward]

You could literally eat your own words. But I'd stay clear of the ones backing up social media.

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

Social media mushrooms? Probably taste like the fertilizer they grew in.

(Trying to bite my tongue because this shittake came from Ohio State and my in-laws are Wolverines aka U. of Michigan fans. That's no reason to start a flame war in our favorite forums, lest I get banned, but the struggle is real.)

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

And anything about Beef Wellingtons.

[KittenHuffer]

Soon .....

..... it won't just be the programmers that are kept in the dark and fed on sh*t!

[SnailFerrous]

Instead of packing a laptop and lunch box for a day at the office, future white collar workers need only take the laptop.

[LessWileyCoyote]

I misread the heading and for a moment thought there must be a new type of processor called "ShitLake".

[tony72]

I think it maitake while before this technology becomes mainstream.

[m4r35n357]

BACN & mushrooms

Nice, seem to have slipped under the radar ;)

[Conrad Longmore]

Next stop..

..a spore drive.

[m4r35n357]

Re: Next stop..

if you think we have personal data "leakage" problems now, just wait!

[NXM]

Breakfast

Oops, I've fried your memory!

[Dwarf]

Re: Breakfast

@NXM

Brilliant

[HuBo]

Love it

Seeing how shiitake essentially consist of a whole bunch of memristors that are fundamental to low-power neuromorphic computing, makes me wonder if thin-slicing them and inserting the result in a sandwich of BCI electrodes (grid arrays as found in a toaster, kind off) could result in interesting learning or stimulus processing abilities? Or would it be necessary to grow the shiitakes in the shape of a cauliflower first, possibly through transgenic hybridization (by gene gun? Like oyster mushrooms?)? Would the shroom's 36,000 sexes get in the way? Could these then be used for brain transplants?

The possibilities seem endless ... ;) (not to mention the delicious recipes!)

[PB90210]

Perhaps we could distract Donnie from his plan to restart nuclear testing by showing him a few pictures of mushrooms and staying how bigly and awesome they are.

[Dwarf]

Memory ...

Did anyone else pick up on the "The mushroom-based memristors achieved switching frequencies up to 5,850 times per second with approximately 90 percent accuracy"

90% accuracy on memory probably needs a bit more work before we can call it acceptable.

Similarly, clock rates in the KHz range needs a bit of work for 2025 processor clock rates.

Do the bad memories from magic mushrooms count in this too ?